Posted on 04/12/2006 5:03:46 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Iran could build a nuclear weapon within "days" once it completes plans to beef up its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, a State Department official said Wednesday.
"Natanz was constructed to house 50,000 centrifuges," Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters in Moscow. "Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days."
Earlier on Wednesday, Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Saeedi, appeared on Iran's state-run TV network to announce plans for "industrial scale" uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at the Natanz facility, according to the Associated Press.
Rademaker, whose stunning "nukes-in-days" prediction was first reported by Bloomberg News, offered his comments in reaction to Saeedi's announcement.
Iran's first successful attempt to enrich uranium, announced Tuesday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was accomplished with just 164 centrifuges. While it's not clear how quickly Iran could reach the 50,000 centrifuge mark, there are indications that the rogue nation is already much closer than indicated by Tuesday's announcement.
Last August, an exiled Iranian dissident who helped uncover nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity in 2002, told the Associated Press that Iran has already manufactured thousands of centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade.
"4,000 centrifuge machines have not been declared to the IAEA," Alireza Jafarzadeh said. "And the regime has kept the production of these machines hidden from the inspectors while the negotiations with the European Union have been going on over the past 21 months."
In Feb. 2003, UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei visited Natanz. He reported that in a nearby building, workers were assembling parts for thousands of centrifuges.
The Natanz facility is buried 75 feet underground and has a reinforced concrete roof, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
About 20 days.
Read the article. Obviously there won't be any bombs in 16 days.
Only Iran knows how long they've been enriching uranium and how many centrifuges they have. Can anyone believe anything they say? I think not.
tick tick tick
They'll probably load the tips of their missiles with illegal aliens and then launch them toward the U.S.
I surprised how many people actually believed him. Surely, it's highly classified and he's not going to tell his enemy exactly where he is in the development of muclear weapons. Either they achieved enrichment a long time ago and are trying to hide from us how far along they really are, or they're bluffing and are nowhere close. imo
What do you propose?
My proposition involves considerably more than calling another bloody meeting...
So..... any guesses as to when the bombing starts? (hopefully Iran not going first).
Maybe it will be Israel that attacks Iran.
Somebody should get on with it!
Acquiring Target.
We could hit them now and only have 10,000 to 15,000 casulties. On the other hand if the iranian barbarians build nukes they will use them with indiscretion and the casulties will be 100 fold.
Once again, America is being called upon to do the dirty work so the rest of the idiot world can criticize us.
Lets roll!
I believe they already have them. We need to move, and we will.
Q The Assistant Secretary of State in Moscow today said that Iran, in developing its centrifuges at the current pace or at the industrial scale that they say they're going to, they could have a nuclear bomb within 16 days. Is that right?
Maybe the reporter left out some clarifying information from his question, but the way that it was presented, he appears to have been thinking that the US official was talking about Iran having enough enriched material to make a nuclear device sixteen days from today.
Ah, but does it also have a reinforced concrete floor and/or reinforced concrete walls? Think about tunnelling machines. There's more than one way to take out the trash.
Where did the 10 years come from? Seymour Hersch?
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